Boat.



B. T. DELAFIELD.

BOAT.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 9, 1910.

1,022,725. Patented A r. 9,1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 60.. WASHINGTON D C B; T. DELAFIELD.

BOAT.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 9, 1910.

' Patented Apr. 9, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

| ll ll 'lllllllllllli I I I UNETED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN 'I. DELAFIELD, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-FOURTH T0 JOHN E. WEAVER, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

BOAT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 9, 1912.

Application filed April 9, 1910. Serial No. 554,348.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, BENJAMIN T. DELA- FIELD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Boats, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to boats and my object is to produce a boat capable of overriding ordinary obstructions, such as floating logs and snags, and of cutting its way through sand bars so as to be particularly serviceable upon streams where shoals are liable to be encountered.

More specifically my object is to produce a boat having a hull consisting of a plurality of buoyant rollers equipped with ribs or blades to effect the propulsion of the boat and the cutting away of sand bars when such are encountered.

A further object is to provide means for holding said rollers yieldingly depressed so that upon encountering sand bars and snags or other substantially unyielding obstructions, the rollers will yield upwardly and thus minimize the danger of injury by contact with the obstructions.

Another object is to produce a boat provided with one or more yieldingly depressed keels to cooperate with the rudder in the guidance of the vessel, and another object is to provide a rotatable keel or keels so as to more readily pass over obstruct-ions such as sand bars or floating logs. I

lVith these general objects in view and others as hereinafter appear, the invention consists in certain novel and peculiar features of construct-ion and organization as hereinafter described and claimed; and in order that it may be fully understood reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1, is atop plan view of a boat embodying my invention. Fig. 2, is a side view of the same. Fig. 3, is a vertical longitudinal section on the line IIIIII of Fig. 1. Fig. 4, is a transverse section on the line IVIV of Fig. 2. Fig. 5, is an enlarged section on the line VV of Fig. 2. Fig. 6, is a detail perspective View of a housing for gearing forming a part of the invention. Fig. 7, is a detail view of one of the slidable clutch collars.

In the said drawings where like reference characters identify corresponding parts in all the figures, 1 indicates what will constitute the main deck of the boat, and 2 longitudinal sills supporting the deck.

3 is a downwardly and rearwardly tapering prow below the front end of the deck, and 4 is the rudder secured upon a suitably supported steering post 5 equipped at its upper end with a helm 6.

7 are rigid hangers extending downward from the sills and provided at their inner sides with vertical slots 8, and at their upper ends with blocks 9 having depending pins 10 receiving the upper ends of expansive coil springs 11 bearing at their lower ends on slidable blocks 12, arranged within the hangers, the last-named blocks having upwardly projecting pins 13 receiving the lower ends of said springs and cooperating with pins 10 in maintaining the springs in proper position. The sliding blocks 12 are provided with outwardly projecting trunnions 14L engaging the guide slots 8 and capable of rocking as well as sliding therein, and underlying the slide blocks and limiting their downward movement and secured in any suitable manner to the lower ends of the hangers are plates 15, 16 indicating braces for the hangers.

17 are preferably tubular shafts journaled in the blocks 12 and 18 preferably air-tight rollers secured rigidly on said shafts, said rollers conj ointly constituting the hull of the boat. The rollers may be smooth as shown and provided with outwardly projecting ribs or blades 19, or may be of deeply corrugated metal so that the corrugations shall constitute the blades.

By the arrangement shown it will be seen that there are two rollers on each shaft disposed at opposite sides of the longitudinal center of the boat and that if one of said rollers encounters a sand bar or'other obstruction which will oifer material resistance, the roller can move upward slightly, the adjacent springyielding to permit the slidable bearing blocks 12 to move upward, it being further noted that the pivotal relation between the bearing blocks and the hangers enables the former to turn slightly so as to always maintain their proper antifrictional relation to the shell of the rollers, it being further noted that if an obstruction is encountered by both rollers on the same shaft, the latter and the rollers may move vertically upward without pivotal action of blocks 12.

Arranged within each roller by preference is a spiral partition 20 extending from end to end of the roller and from its outer wall to the shaft, the latter having a slot or opening 21, and the arrangement is such that should one of the rollers be injured and water enter the same, its rotation in the progress of the boat will result in such water being scooped up by the spiral partition and conducted to the opening 21, through which it will pass into the shaft and escape from the ends of the same. It will thus be seen that under ordinary circumstances the water will be discharged from the roller as rapidly as it enters, it being also noted in this connection that there is no probability of a majority of the rollers being injured to such an extent as to admit water and that consequently practically all danger of the boat sinking is eliminated.

Referring now to the driving mechanism, 22 is a vertical shaft suitably ournaled and adapted to be driven by a suitable motor (not shown) the lower end of said shaft be ing connected by a universal joint 23 with a short vertical shaft 24 journaled in a bearing 25 supported from the housing 26 of a worm shaft 27, the thread of said shaft meshing with a worm wheel 28 secured to the underlying shaft 17 within said housing, and said worm wheelis equipped with a clutch member 29 for engagement by a sliding clutch collar 30 secured upon the shaft 21, a lever 31 being connected to the clutch collar for throwing the same in and out of gear with the clutch member 29. The lever projects up through a slot 32 in the deck and is fulcrumed at 33 or otherwise to a fixed part of the boat. By the operation of this lever the shaft 17 may be thrown into and out of gear with the worm wheel, and to impart rotation to the worm shaft, a bevel pinion 34 is mounted on the lower end of shaft 24 and meshes with a bevel gear 35 secured on the rear end of the worm shaft. A similar housing, worm wheel and worm shaft is associated with each shaft 17 and the associated worm shafts are connected together by extensible tumbling shafts 36 so that the movement imparted to the first-named worm shaft through the bevel gear 35 thereof, is transmitted to the remaining worm shafts and hence to all of the shafts 17. The use of these extensible tumbling shafts or their equivalents is necessary owing to the fact that the shafts 17 are independently capable of movement bodily and of tilting movement as hereinbefore explained, due to the encounter of their respective rollers 18 or one of them with a substantially unyielding obstruction, the connection provided enabling the rollers to make the movements described without interfering with their proper rotation by the driving shaft 22, as will be readily understood.

Arranged in the space between each pair of rollers and between the shafts of the adjacent rollers or certain of them, are disk keels 37 journaled in T-shaped sleeves 38, slidingly mounted on rigid rods 39 extending downward from the deck of the vessel, these disk keels being adapted to turn through contact with the water or obstructions therein so as to eliminate friction as far as practicable, and also to yield upward so as to ride over ordinary obstructions, the sleeves 38 sliding upward on the rods 39 in the upward movement of the disks, it being apparent of course that the disk keels may be otherwise arranged so as to be capable of up and down movement upon encountering obstructions.

In the propulsion of the boat the rollers are caused to revolve in the direction indicated by the arrows Fig. 2, the speed developed being in proportion to the rapidity of such rotation. floating log or snag projecting upward, the same will be forced or sprung downward by the prow and the rollers will ride over it in an obvious manner. If the boat, which in practice will be of shallow draft, by preference, should encounter a sand bar, the rapid revolution of the rollers will cut a channel in the sand of sufficient depth for the boat to readily pass over the same.

In the construction shown the various worm shafts through the tumbling-shaft connections, are simultaneously driven and by means of the clutch-operating levers any one of the roller shafts may be thrown out of gear with its respective worm shaft. The keel 37 or the keels 37 if a plurality be employed, as is the preferred construction, cooperate with the rudder in the guidance of the boat, particularly when the latter is traveling at an angle to the direction in which the water is flowing, and the parts in practice will be so proportioned that the water level when the boat is fully loaded, will be just below the lower ends of the standards 7, so that the latter shall not I(gffer any obstruction to the progress of the oat.

From the above description it will be apparent that I have produced a boat embodying the features of advantage enumerated as desirable in the statement of the object of the invention and I wish it to be understood-that I do not desire to be restricted to the exact details of construction shown and described as obvious modifications will sug gest themselves to one skilled in the art.

Having thus described the invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A boat, comprising a deck, a plurality If the boat encounters a c revolve said rollers, a rudder for steering the boat, and a keel arranged in the longitudinal center of the boat and capable of movement in a vertical plane; said keel being of disk form, and capable of rotation.

2. A boat, comprising a deck and steering mechanism, a plurality of buoyant rollers arranged tandem and provided with external ribs constituting propelling blades, means for holding the rollers yieldingly depressed with respect to the deck, and driving means geared to said rollers and embodying a tumbling shaft connection between them to permit of their independent vertical movement.

3. A boat, comprising a deck, a plurality of transverse shafts suitably journaled below the deck, a pair of rollers mounted upon each shaft at opposite sides of and equal distances from the longitudinal center of the deck and provided with peripheral ribs constituting blades, means for driving the roller carrying shafts, lever-controlled clutch mechanism for each of the last-named shafts to throw the same into and out of gear with the driving means, a prow depending from the deck in front of the foremost roller-carrying shaft, and means for steering the boat.

4. A boat, comprising a deck, a plurality of transverse shafts suitably journaled below the deck, a pair of rollers mounted upon each shaft at opposite sides of and equal distances from the longitudinal center of the deck and provided with peripheral ribs constituting blades, means for driving the rollercarrying shafts, levercontrolled clutch mechanism for each of the last-named shafts to throw the same into and out of gear with the driving means, a prow depending from the deck in front of the foremost rollercarrying shaft, and means for steering the boat, consisting of a yieldinglydepressed keel between a pair of the rollercarrying shafts and the rollers of said shafts, and a rudder arranged rearward of the rearmost roller-carrying shaft.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature, in the presence of two witnesses.

BENJAMIN T. DELAFIELD.

Vitnesses:

HELEN C. RODGERS, G. Y. THoRPE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. G. 

